I'll be 53 this summer, 'whole word' or 'sight reading' became popular a few years after I started school. I remember my mom being so frustrated with how my youngest sister was being taught. She's 5 years younger and phonics were not taught in school for her.
If you get a chance, find an old McGuffey Reader, those are some of the older books used for teaching reading. Phonetic markings are used in the book.
So, phonics has been around much longer than 'whole word' reading. Oh, if you are not sure about sentence structure, blame that on modern teaching methods that did away with sentence diagramming.
